Neil Bluhm
Founder
JMB Realty

Neil Bluhm is one of the founders and President of JMB Realty Corporation and a Principal in Walton Street Capital. He is a graduate of the University of Illinois, receiving a B.S. in Accounting and is a CPA. He also graduated from Northwestern University Law School.

Walton Street Capital invests in opportunistic real estate investment and development. JMB owns luxury hotels, office buildings and mixed-use projects. JMB and Walton Street have acquired in excess of $25 billion of real estate.

JMB and its principals own Kaanapali Land LLC which owns and develops land in Hawaii. Xanterra, Inc. is also the leading operator of national parks in the United States and manages, among others, the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone National Parks.

Neil, through an affiliated family partnership, is an investor and Chairman of Falls Management Company, the operator and developer of a casino in Niagara Falls, Canada, and an investor in hedge funds and distressed securities.

Neil is a Trustee at Northwestern University, a member of the Board of Directors of Northwestern Memorial Foundation of Northwestern Hospital, is a member of the Board of Directors for the Alzheimer's Disease & Related Disorders Association, and is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Whitney Museum of American Art, and a member of the Board of Trustees of The Art Institute of Chicago.

Jay Mantz
Global Co-Head of Real Estate
Morgan Stanley

Jay Mantz is a Managing Director of Morgan Stanley and Global Co-Head of Morgan Stanley Real Estate overseeing the Firm’s global real estate business, including banking and capital raising activities as well as the Firm’s real estate investing program. Jay is also a member of the Operating Committee of the Global Investment Banking Division of Morgan Stanley.

Jay joined Morgan Stanley in 1993 in the New York office of Morgan Stanley Real Estate and moved to London in 1996 as Head of the Morgan Stanley Real Estate Funds in Europe. In 1999, he was named Head of the Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing Group with responsibility for the global activities of Morgan Stanley Real Estate’s principal investing business, including the Morgan Stanley Real Estate Funds and other institutional accounts and proprietary funds managed by Morgan Stanley.

Jay received an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and received a BA from Boston University. He is an active member of various real estate organizations including the Urban Land Institute and the Pension Real Estate Association.

Bill Rudin
President
Rudin Management Company

In 1979, after graduating from New York University’s School of Business and Public Administration with a Bachelor of Science Degree, William Rudin joined the family real estate business, which had been started by his grandfather Samuel Rudin in 1925.

Bill worked closely with his father Lewis and uncle Jack to manage the Rudin portfolio of 16 office towers comprising more than 10 million square feet of space and 22 luxury apartment buildings. In December 1993 Bill was appointed President of Rudin Management Company, Inc.

Carrying on the Rudin family tradition of hands on personal management, Bill has not only embraced his family responsibilities, but like his grandfather, father and uncle, he has been actively involved in New York City’s political, civic and philanthropic life. Bill serves as Chairman of The Association for a Better New York (ABNY), an organization co-founded by his father over thirty years ago. ABNY is a coalition of business, labor and political leaders that was created in the 70’s to help make New York City a better place to live, work and visit.

Bill has put his own personal mark on the family business by championing the resurgence of Lower Manhattan giving new life to old properties, both residential and commercial, through converting them into technology smart buildings. In 1995, after remaining vacant for five years, 55 Broad Street (www.55broadst.com) became the first building to bring broadband connectivity to each and every floor. With this innovative concept, and with the creation of a community for the new media and technology industries, 55 Broad Street was leased in 18 months and led to the turn around of Lower Manhattan. Other recent Rudin projects include developing the new North American headquarters for Reuters @ 3 Times Square, a 750,000 square foot, state of the art, environmentally friendly office building, as well as the conversion of the former AT & T headquarters @ 32 Avenue of the Americas, to a telecommunications and media center.

Bill serves as Chairman of The Battery Conservancy, and is a Board Member of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The New York Hall of Science, New York University, The Real Estate Board of New York and The Alliance for Downtown New York. Bill is also a member of The Counsel of Foreign Relations, and a member of The New York City Marathon Committee and the JP Morgan Chase Manhattan Bank’s Regional Advisory Board.

In addition to lecturing at various educational institutions and real estate industry functions, Bill has appeared on many televised shows to discuss real estate as well as issues that impact New York City.

Bill resides in Manhattan with his wife Ophelia. They have two college age children, his daughter Samantha, and his son Michael.

Barry Sternlicht
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Starwood Capital Group

Barry S. Sternlicht is Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of Starwood Capital Group, a private investment firm he formed in 1991. Sternlicht is Chairman of the Board of Groupe Taittinger and Societe´ du Louvre, as well as Baccarat. For the past fourteen years, he has structured more than two hundred seventy-five separate investment transactions with a cost basis of more than $30 billion. Starwood's funds have invested in more than 11,500 apartment units, more than 950 hotels, over eighteen million square feet of office properties, fourteen million square feet of retail and over 20,000 acres of land in residential subdivisions. Today the firm manages more than $10 billion of assets on behalf of its high net worth and institutional partners and recently completed the funding for its seventh and eighth commingled funds, totaling nearly $2.5 billion. Starwood Capital Group employs approximately 100 associates at its, or its affiliated, offices in Greenwich, Connecticut, Tokyo, London, Luxembourg, Atlanta, Washington DC, and San Francisco. Through its exclusive joint venture affiliates, Starwood’s family employs more than 14,000 people. Starwood Capital Group has recently formed Starwood Energy Partners and is a leader in power transmission distribution. Starwood’s funds co-control the nation’s largest golf course operators, American Golf and Troon Golf.

From 1995 through 2004, Sternlicht was Chairman and CEO of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc., a company he founded in 1995. Today, Starwood Hotels is one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world with more than 750 properties in 80 countries. Starwood is a fully integrated owner, operator and franchiser of hotels and resorts with six internationally renowned brands, including: St. Regis, The Luxury Collection, W Hotels, Sheraton, Westin, Four Points, as well as Starwood Vacation Ownership, Inc., a premier developer and operator of vacation ownership resorts. Starwood Hotels employs over 110,000 people.

Barry Sternlicht has been credited as a dynamic and innovative hotel leader, creating new products and programs with immediate global appeal. Sternlicht created and launched W Hotels, which has grown to 20 operating hotels with an additional twenty under way around the world in such cities as Dallas, Ft. Lauderdale, Miami, Scottsdale, Barcelona, the Maldives, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. Some of his innovations include the creation of Westin’s “Heavenly Bed”, “Heavenly Bath”, “Westin Workout”, and the world’s first frequent traveler program with “no blackouts”.

One of the youngest leaders in the hotel and leisure industry today, Sternlicht places as strong an emphasis on his humanitarian efforts. Under his leadership, Starwood Hotels became a National Partner of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) Walk to Cure Diabetes Program, mobilizing associate volunteer power across U.S. communities. Sternlicht’s commitment and fundraising efforts led to prestigious national honors such as JDRF’s Man of the Year, JDRF’s Living and Giving Award and JDRF’s Chairman’s Award. He also focused Starwood Hotels’ efforts to support numerous causes such as City Cares of America, Habitat for Humanity, Junior Achievement, Ronald McDonald House, UNICEF, Kids in Crisis, among others.

Barry Sternlicht was born in 1960. He received his BA, magna cum laude, with honors from Brown University. He later earned an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School.

For his commitment to design in business, in 2005, Sternlicht was inducted into the Interior Design Magazine Hall of Fame. He holds an Honorary Doctor of Business Administration in Hospitality Management from Johnson & Wales University. He also received the Preston Robert Tisch Distinguished Industry Leadership Award from New York University School for Hospitality, Tourism & Travel Administration, the CEO Diversity Award by Diversity Best Practices/Business Women’s Network, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Travel Marketing Executives, the Hospitality Heritage Award from the American Hotel and Lodging Association, and the Marketer of the Year Award in 2005 from Brandweek.

Sternlicht is a trustee of Brown University. He serves on the Board of Directors of National Golf, The Estée Lauder Companies, the National Advisory Board of JP Morgan Chase, and the Advisory Board of Eurohypo Bank. He serves on the boards of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s National Leadership Advocacy Program, Channel 13/WNET, Kids in Crisis, The Harvard Club, the Business Committee for the Arts, and the Center for Christian-Jewish Understanding. He is a member of the Committee to Encourage Corporate Philanthropy, the Presidential Tourism & Travel Advisory Board, the Young Presidents Organization, the World Travel & Tourism Council, and the Urban Land Institute.